Adjusted pretax profit at the London-headquartered lender rose in the three months through March from a year earlier to US$2.1 billion, according to a statement Thursday. That beat the US$1.55 billion estimate compiled in a Bloomberg survey.

“Business performance was strong and broad-based across our segments, products and markets in what continues to be an uncertain environment,” CEO Bill Winters said in the statement.

In an attempt to boost shareholder returns and breathe life into a lackluster stock, Winters has embarked on a management revamp in recent months.

In March, Standard Chartered announced that Simon Cooper, head of corporate, commercial and institutional banking, would depart while his division would be renamed corporate and investment banking.

As part of the changes, the bank is stripping out layers of regional reporting lines in the division, which the company says will help speed up decision making and make managers more accountable for the performance of their businesses.

Despite a 19% rally in the share price since Feb 8, the stock has declined more than 30% since Winters took the helm at the British lender in June 2015.

He has become increasingly vocal about the poor performance of Standard Chartered shares and described them as “crap” in February as the lender reported its full-year results for 2023.

The same month, the bank said its new “Fit for Growth” programme will save about US$1.5 billion in expenses over the next three years, but also add a similar amount to costs for the permanent organisational changes.